Samsung said on Wednesday that it’s adding Google’s Gemini AI to its home robot Ballie through a partnership with Google Cloud. Users will be able to ask the robot different queries to get answers from Gemini, said the companies. Samsung aims to tap into Gemini’s multimodal capabilities for its robot. The Korean tech giant said […]
Reddit’s conversational AI search tool leverages Google Gemini
Reddit Answers, the platform’s conversational AI search tool, gets an upgrade through an integration with Google Gemini. This comes over a year after Reddit expanded its partnership with Google Cloud to access its Vertex AI platform to build AI agents. Google and Reddit announced the update on Wednesday, explaining that by incorporating Gemini on Vertex AI, […]
Lyst, the fashion marketplace once valued at $700M, sells to Japan’s Zozo for $154M
Fashion goes in and out of style, and so, it turns out, do fashion startups. Lyst — the high-end fashion marketplace with 160 million users that was once valued at $700 million — has been acquired for just $154 million in an all-cash deal. The buyer is Zozo, a Japan-based fashion and e-commerce business. Zozo […]
Governments identify dozens of Android apps bundled with spyware
The advisories say the spyware apps are used to target members of civil society who may oppose China’s state interests.
A 25-year-old police drone founder just raised $75M led by Index
If you ever call 911 from an area that’s hard to get to, you might hear the buzz of a drone well before a police cruiser pulls up. And there’s a good chance that it will be one made by Brinc Drones, a Seattle-based startup founded by 25-year-old Blake Resnick who dropped out of college […]
Instagram is beefing up its search to compete with TikTok
Instagram head Adam Mosseri says the company is looking to improve the app’s search functionality, admitting this is an area where Instagram could do more to compete. The remarks, made on a recent episode of the “Build Your Tribe” podcast, come at a time when younger, Gen Z users often turn to social apps like […]
Deep Cogito emerges from stealth with hybrid AI ‘reasoning’ models
A new company, Deep Cogito, has emerged from stealth with a family of openly available AI models that can be switched between “reasoning” and non-reasoning modes. Reasoning models like OpenAI’s o1 have shown great promise in domains like math and physics, thanks to their ability to effectively fact-check themselves by working through complex problems step […]
No, Stripe is not becoming a bank
Last week, details emerged about an application that fintech giant Stripe had submitted for a U.S. banking license. There was a lot of chatter on X about whether this meant Stripe – already the largest privately valued fintech in the world – would now be adding bank to the list of descriptions of what it […]
Inside the EV startup secretly backed by Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos is funding a secretive EV startup based in Michigan called Slate Auto that could start production as soon as next year, according to multiple sources and documents that link the billionaire’s family office to the startup. Slate, which took root in another Bezos-connected company called Re:Build Manufacturing, has been operating quietly since its […]
At last, MrBeast weighs in on the global economic crisis du jour
Your 401k is suffering. The billionaires are fighting. The gamers are imperiled. Not even the penguins on McDonald Island, where no humans reside, have been spared. But at long last, 26-year-old YouTuber and chocolatier MrBeast has weighed in on President Donald Trump’s controversial plan to impose sweeping tariffs on imports. Jokes aside, the prolific YouTuber […]